Part 70 (1/2)

It is happily true, that many of the children of our people, as well as those of other people, are converted and brought into the Church under the faithful ministrations of the Word; but how many ten thousand more of them would never wander from the Church, would more easily and more certainly be led to experience all the power of inward religion and the blessings of Christian fellowshi+p, were they acknowledged in their true position and rights, and taught the significancy, and obligation, and privilege of all that the outward ordinances and their visible relations involve were intended to confer It ought to est increase ofto returns over which we are disposed to congratulate ourselves, falls vastly short of the natural increase of population in our own community, apart froe, and, therefore, that perhaps five or s, froht into it froencies The prophets did not deny to a Jew his membershi+p in the Jewish Church, in order to make him a Jeardly Mr Wesley did not un-church the tens of thousands of baptized land to whom he successfully preached salvation by faith: he es, as baptized rounds of his appeals; and this vantage ground was one great e I will only add, that as in former years, I, with others, hts of Canada and of our Canadian Church against pretensions which have long since been withdrawn, and the erroneous infor since been removed; so, I now feel it my duty to do what I can to secure and hts of ainst the exercise of ministerial authority which has no warrant in Scripture nor in the writings of Mr Wesley; and I feel myself specially called upon by my position in respect to the youth of the country, as well as byconvictions, to claihts of church membershi+p in behalf of theupon both Scriptural and Wesleyan grounds, it is due to such children and to their parents

I have no object in view, beyond what is avowed in this correspondence

If I have had any personal ambition, it has been more than satisfied both in the Church and in the country at large I have nothing more to seek or desire, than to employ the short and uncertain ti to becoht, to reat educational systeed, and to secure to all members of our Church, and to all parents and children baptized into it, what I aes I am satisfied that Scriptural and Wesleyan truth will, as heretofore, prevail, and that the Conference and the Church will yet rejoice in it, however it may, for the moment, be clouded by error and roundless fears, or mistaken prejudice

On the 13th June Dr Ryerson made a request to the Conference that the docunation be published in the _Guardian_

He said:--

I wish the church to know the reasons which have influenced me on this occasion--especially as I believe them to be both Wesleyan and Scriptural As I have for thirty years contributed to all the funds of the preachers and Church, without receiving or expecting to receive a farthing from them, and from the period and kinds of labours I have performed in the Church, and from my wish to live in connexion with it, I think ht at least not be withheld from the members of our Church If any expense attend the publication of the correspondence between us, I will defray every farthing of it

I do not think any other member of the Conference is called upon to do as I have done-- peculiar But I do not wish to be wronged and blackened by misrepresentations; I only desire that h the land may be permitted and enabled to read my own reasons and views on this the last occasion of my official intercourse with them[140]

This request was denied, so that Dr Ryerson published the docu so he said:--

Asubject can scarcely be laid before the Wesleyan coe, I have had no other alternative than to assu compelled to observe, as in past years, a strict silence beyond the walls of the Conference room But from what I have witnessed and heard in that rooent and devout members of the Wesleyan Church, either in their closets with their Bible before them, or at their firesides with their children around them Whether I have or have not overrated the importance of the question, I leave everyone to decide after reading the following correspondence It will be seen that the question is not one of a personal nature--is not one which ought to excite any unkind feeling between persons who may take different views of it The question is as to whether, on the Wesleyan Conference assu the position and functions of a distinct and independent Church, a condition of membershi+p has not been imposed which is a departure from the principles of Mr Wesley and the doctrine and practice of the Apostolic and Prinores the church relation, rights and privileges of the baptized children of the Wesleyan body, and excludes thousands frorounds It will be seen by an extract on page 20, that Mr Wesley's disciplinary object in giving quarterly tickets was, ”to separate the precious from the vile,” ”to reht for an instance of Mr Wesley ever excluding, even froht and orderlyThat, however, he ht have consistently done in a society in a Church, if he had thought it expedient to do so, as it would not have affected the meed The three paragraphs of our Discipline, containing three sentences against which I protest, had no place in the Minutes of Conference finally revised and printed by Mr Wesley in the year of his death; nor do they exist in the Minutes of the British Conference to this day From what is therefore modern and unauthorized by Scripture, by the practice of the Prio back to first principles, and say, as did Mr Wesley to Dr coke and Mr Asbury, when he sent theanize the Societies in America into a Church, let us ”simply follow the Scriptures and the Primitive Church”

It is often said that ”nobody objects to attending class-ion” Persons who thus judge of others show more of the Pharisaical, than of the Christian, spirit, and evince but little of the ”wisdo others by the correspondence shows that I am second to none in s; but I have had too much experience not to know that the best talkers in a class- are not always the best livers in the world; and I attach less importance to what a person htness in his dealings, integrity in his word, meekness in his temper, charity in his spirit, liberality in his contributions, blas, are the rule of Divine judgment

It may not be improper for me to observe, that there areas a Church-law, and yet do not observe that law themselves perhaps once a year, much less habitually, as they insist in respect to private members; and the most strenuous of such advocates pay no heed to the equally positive prohibitions and requirements of the discipline in several other respects, especially in regard to band-ned, as the Discipline expressly states, ”to obey that command of God, 'confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye , that there aretests of this description But history shows, from our Lord to the present time, that the most vehement advocates for the ”mint, annise and cummin” of particular tests and forhtier matters of the law” It is easier for men to impose and enforce law upon others than to observe it themselves But when a ument of his actions is the more forcible, as well as the ed, that if attendance at class- be not made a church-law, and the capital punishment of expulsion be not attached to its violation, class-s will fall into disuse I answer, this is beside the question The question is, whether there is such a law in the Bible? Has our Lord or His Apostles given authority to any conclave or conference to make such a law? Our Lord and the Apostles knew better than their folloas essential to membershi+p in the Christian Church, as well as as essential to its existence and prosperity I s cannot be maintained except by the terror of the scorpion-whip, or rather executioner's sword, of expulsion froe, or place of delightful and joyous resort My own conviction is, that if class-s, like love-feasts, were e and useful ious edification, and not as a law, the observance of which is necessary to membershi+p in the visible Church of Christ, butthe Missionary Society, class-s would be more efficient and useful than they are now, and attendance at them would be eneral But what n to a question as to what is enjoined in the law and testimony of the Holy Scriptures as essential to discipleshi+p with Christ

It is well known that e portion of the ular--that their absence froeneral rule of their practice, and their attendance the exception Yet such persons are not excluded, as it would involve the expulsion of the greater part of theseveral of its ministers It is, therefore, so , to have a rule which ignores at one sweep the membershi+p of all the baptized children of the body, which sends and keeps away the conscientious and straightforward, ould not think of joining a religious co habitually to observe all its rules, and yet, after all, habitually disregarded by a large portion of both preachers and people, and is ratifying individual hostility, rather than a ious and moral ends of Christian discipline

It is, however, the bearing of this question upon the relationshi+p and destinies of the youth of the Wesleyan body that has most deeply impressed and affected my own mind, as may be inferred from the correspondence on the subject It requires less scriptural zeal, and an inferior order of qualifications, and it isand easy, to s, and in the ordinary public services of the Church, than to pursue ”in season and out of season” the less conspicuous andup children and youth in the knowledge and experience of the doctrines of Christ, and thus secure them to the Church, and to the Saviour, and secure to them the ”Godliness which has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to coeneral adoption (with a few fine exceptions), of the former in preference to the latter--instead of the union of both? It is the hureat majority of Methodist youth are lost to the Church, if not lost to Christ and to heaven--that in a large proportion of instances, Methodiseneration of the sareat majority of instances it is only so perpetuated very partially, and in very few instances to all the children of Methodist parents; while there is each year the conversion of only a few hundreds, or thousands, als, and the accession of strangers and aliens to the body, are indeed causes of thankfulness and rejoicing; but prevention is better than cure--piety frolects to provide for his own house,” even in temporal matters, is well known; and ious organization which loses the great ely on infusions froanization ood, and widely extend in , especially in a new and unsettled state of society; but the vital ele, where, by its repulsion or neglect, the great majority of its baptized youth are alienated from, and lost to its coenius of Scriptural Christianity, that ”children trained up in the way they should go,” will, in enerally, depart fronitude of the wrongs and evils above referred to, dreading personal collision in the Conference, anticipating but little success fro uncertain as to hoere likely to be the days ofthat a special duty was imposed upon me in this respect by Providential circumstances, I addressed to the President, the 2nd of January,as the most likely means, without collision with any person or body, to draw practical attention to the subject, on the part of both the ministry and the laity of the Church I have the satisfaction of knowing that, if the first efforts ofthe Conference in 1825, were to advocate the right of the round in which to bury their dead, and the right of its e service for the ations, my last efforts in connection with the Conference have been directed to obtain the rights of Christian citizenshi+p to the baptized children and exemplary adherents of the Church While I ht to such an education as will fit hiations of the state correspond to the rights of the child, so I rounds, that each child baptized by the Church is thereby enfranchised with the rights and privileges of citizenshi+p in it, until he forfeits theations of the Church correspond to the rights of the child I also maintain that each ht to hisas he keeps the ”commandments and ordinances of God,” whether he attends or does not attend awhich Mr Wesley (who instituted it), declared to be ”merely prudential, not essential, not of divine institution,” and for not attending which he never excluded, or presu, a person from Church membershi+p It is a principle of St

Paul, in the 14th chapter of Ros of Mr Wesley, ”in necessary things unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity”

In a letter, written from Quebec to a dear friend in Toronto, Dr

Ryerson thus refers to his religious experience at that ti question He said:--In compliance with the entreaties of the Hon James Ferrier and the Rev W, and perhaps seldom with so ation was very large; islature were present; and so in New Brunshen solicited; and I have felt that I have done right in obeying the powers that be in this respect in Quebec I aain next Sunday, as many public persons have expressed disappoint member of the church fro spent the evening in my room until after ten o'clock, he went to write out all of the discourse he could rehted to think I will still preach, and say that I would sin against God and man if I refused My discourse on Sunday was the result of my reflections and prayer here without books or notes; and I feel much better since I consented to do what all seeht to do They are quite satisfied with the course I have adopted, and think it will result in great good, if I will not refuse to preach

The words of St Paul (1st Cor ch 9, verse 16), in a chapter to which I opened the other day, have affected ood during the very few years at most that now remain to me, as to preach when desired by those who have authority in the matter, in any church or place I feel deeply humbled under a sense of oodness, long-suffering and compassion of God towards me

FOOTNOTES:

[138] Mr Wesley's own account of the origin of the office of class-leader and class-s, illustrates the accuracy of what I have stated The office was first created at Bristol, 15th February, 1742, for financial purposes alone A feeeks afterwards, it was instituted for religious purposes also; and for the twofold object of religion and finance, it was ened by Mr Wesley, 1st May, 1743; but in which there is no , or of the duty of any member to meet in class In his ”Plain Account of the People called Methodists,” Mr Wesley thus states the origin of the office of class-leader and the institution of class- of quite another thing, we struck upon a method for which we have had cause to bless God ever since I was talking with several of the Society in Bristol (Feb 15, 1742,) concerning thethe debts there, when one stood up, and said, 'Let every ive a penny a week till all are paid' Another said, 'But many of them are poor, and cannot afford to do it' 'Then,' said the other, 'put eleven of the poorest with , well: I will see theive for them as well as for hbours weekly, receive what they give, and ' It was done In a little while some of these inforht It struckI called together the Leaders of the classes (so we used to term them and their companies,) and desired that each would make particular inquiry into the behaviour of those whom he saeekly They did so Many disorderly walkers were detected Some turned from the evil of their ways Some were put away from us Many saith fear, and rejoiced in God with reverence As soon as possible, the same method was used in London, and in all other places The following is Mr Wesley's account of the first appointment of class-leaders in London, extracted from his Journal, Thursday, March 25, 1742: I appointed several earnest and sensible reat difficulty I had long found of knowing the people who desired to be under reed there could be no better way to coe of each person, than to divide them into classes, like those at Bristol, under the inspection of those in whoin of our classes at London, for which I can never sufficiently praise God; the unspeakable usefulness of the institution having ever since been more and more manifest In his ”Plain Account of the People called Methodists,” Mr Wesley says, ”At first they (the Leaders) visited each person at his own house; but this was soon found not so expedient, and that on ns several reasons for this change, and proceeds to answer several objections to class-round on which Mr Wesley based the institution of class-s when I came into the society first; and why should there be now? I do not understand these things, and this changing one thing after another continually' It was easily answered: It is a pity but they had been from the first But we knew not then either the need or the benefit of them Why we use them, you will easily understand, if you will read over the Rules of the Society That with regard to these little prudential helps, we are continually changing one thing after another, is not a weakness or fault as you ie which we enjoy By this means we declare them all to be merely prudential, not essential, not of divine institution

Nohile it is proper for each person, as far as may be consistent with his circumstances and views of duty, to use every prudentialbut what is Divinely instituted should be imposed as a condition of membershi+p in the Church of God Tothat condition, is to require what the Lord hath not coe essentially the character and objects of a inated) declared to be ”merely prudential, not essential, not of divine institution”

That Mr Wesley conceived the basis of a church should be much more coard to the ”little prudential helps” which were suggested to hihth of his twelve reasons against organising a new church--reasons published many years after the preparation and adoption of all his society rules His words are as follows: ”Because to form the plan of a new church would require infinite tireater depth and extensiveness of thought than any of us areis the Article of Faith referred to:--